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Wednesday, April 2, 2014

A sign of the times: telecoms try saving landlines

An interesting report in The Korea Joongang Daily this morning, with the headline "Telecoms try saving landlines." It notes that "As more households give up landline telephones, fixed-line operators are offering free home phones included in packages to keep up their wired services. They’re offering free Internet phones, too, which seemed to be replacing landlines a few years ago. But their subscribers are decreasing as consumers choose to do everything on mobile devices." My main thought about this is that the telecommunications service providers in Korea, as in the rest of the world, are fighting a losing battle to keep customers using landlines. The reason is simply that, all other things equal, people prefer a mobile and cordless device, even when communicating inside their homes. The mobility revolution is real.